


Call Me By My Name or Call Me By My Number

by CaptainAwesome242



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Background Character Death, Caring Bones, Character Study, Crew as Family, Developing Friendships, Dysfunctional Relationships, Enterprise, Epic Friendship, Five Year Mission, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock Friendship, Male Friendship, Names, Nicknames, POV Bones, Platonic Relationships, Possibly Pre-Slash, Post-Star Trek (2009), Post-Star Trek Beyond, Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pre-Five Year Mission, Relationship(s), Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Into Darkness Spoilers, Starfleet, Starship Enterprise (Star Trek), sickbay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-24 00:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10730409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAwesome242/pseuds/CaptainAwesome242
Summary: All of the names given to Leonard McCoy by those around him





	Call Me By My Name or Call Me By My Number

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a similar fic for Hawaii 5-0 and wanted to try it out on Star Trek. 
> 
> Title taken from "The One and Only" by Chesney Hawkes

Jim calls him "Bones"

It started when they first met on the shuttle to Starfleet Academy. Neither of them were in a particularly good way; Jim had a busted nose and blood all down last night's shirt, McCoy had lost everything important to him and was drinking in an attempt to combat his aviophobia. He'd just given a brief outline of his miserable life story in the way you only can to a complete stranger, making a passing comment about only having his "bones" left. The kid seemed to have latched onto the word and made it a nickname. At first McCoy thought it was just to irritate him, a way for Jim to get under the skin of his easily irked roommate. But as time went on it became more affectionate in a "joke between friends" sort of way. Jim, as it turns out, didn't have an easy ride of a life either and the more he opened up to him the more McCoy became his support, his rock, his... well, his Bones.

Throughout their friendship, the nickname has been said with many intonations; there's been the cheeky "Hey Bones," when Jim has been drunk or caught doing something he shouldn't.

The exasperated "Bones..." when the doctor had been a little too cynical.

The pain ridden whisper of "... Bones," when the man was bleeding out. McCoy had learned to appreciate the nickname, but hated more the way it was said.

\---

Nurse Chapel calls him "Len"

For the majority of the time, the head nurse is respectful of her superior, calling Doctor or Doctor McCoy. But there are times when she needs to be stern with him; when he's clocking in over eighteen hours of solid work because of an away mission gone wrong, or a nasty virus aboard the ship. He keeps on determinedly, running on nothing but adrenaline and the few sips of coffee he can manage every few hours. He brushes her off when she approaches, knowing full well what she will say by the reproachful look on her face.

"I'm fine, nurse, thank you for your concern. Now if you don't mind, I've got patients to--"

"Len," It’s the use of his first name, the tone in her voice, that stops him in his tracks, "We have everything under control here, go and take some rest. Even if it's just on the couch in your office at least sleep somewhere,"

He looks mutinous for a moment, before he huffs, "Fine, but only for an hour, and if anything happens wake me immediately, you got that nurse?"

"Understood sir," Chapel agrees.

He stalks to his office, not seeing the triumphant smirk on Christine's face: works every time.

\---

Spock called him "Leonard"

It was only once, and the pair were in life threatening circumstances, but _Spock called him Leonard_.

To say that their relationship had a rocky start would be understatement. The first time McCoy had seen Spock had been at Jim's trial, when the Vulcan had been speaking against Kirk for cheating on the Kobayashi Maru. He made some very valid points about cheating but McCoy didn't like the way he dug at Jim, bringing up his late father. He told Jim that he liked Spock, but that was largely to spite him. During their mission to defeat Nero, McCoy found himself conflicted. As much as he wanted to support his friend, Jim was being argumentative and really not selling his case very well, despite having valid arguments. Spock on the other hand was being Vulcan: logical, unemotional, and following every rule, but he was still the Captain. In the end, Jim and Spock had managed to work well as a team and became friends and while McCoy wouldn't admit it he had come to like Spock too. They formed an unspoken friendship expressed in colourful insults on the doctor's part and comebacks from Spock that, did McCoy not know any better, were downright sarcastic and witty. 

Except that when they seemed to be about to meet their doom on Altamid, Spock made their relationship spoken. 

_"Of course I care, Leonard."_

It was the way that Spock had spoken his name that threw McCoy. It was same care that he was professing to have, that Leonard had known Spock had had for him for a long time.

 _"I always assumed my respect for you was clear. The dialogue we have had across the years has always..."_

_"It's okay, Spock. You don't have to say it."_ McCoy interrupted him. 

Of course he'd known about Spock's feelings for him, McCoy felt the same way. But for Spock to say it out loud would have broken their unspoken agreement, and McCoy couldn't let that happen.

Neither of them mentioned it ever again but neither of them had to, both were well aware of how much the other cared.

\---

Pavel calls him "Doctair"

The accent is always the same though the inflection greatly varies, especially in their first few meetings...

McCoy was stunned when he first found out how old, or rather how young the kid was.

 _"Oh good, he's seventeen,"_

He wasn't even aware that you could sign up for the Academy before you were eighteen, let alone have graduated and be posted aboard the best ship in the fleet. 

It was a little known fact that McCoy was not only a doctor but also a psychologist. Now news travels faster than warp drive so it had barely been ten minutes before he found out about the fate of not only Spock's planet but also his mother, how the "Russian Whiz Kid" had lost her at the last second. Obviously, Spock would need therapy, but McCoy had made a mental note to find out who this kid was and to make sure he got the support he would surely need too.

He met him sooner than expected on the Bridge, and had been blown away when he saw the youthful face and brown curls. When they'd said he was a kid he'd imagined someone in their twenties, not this... this... _kid._

_"Wait a minute, kid, how old are you?"_

_"Sewenteen, sair,"  
_

_"Oh good, he's seventeen,"_

Oh good, as if he hadn't gone through enough, as if losing Spock's mother through circumstances beyond his control wasn't enough, _the kid was seventeen!_

Jim had shot him a confused glance, not understanding McCoy's objection and why it was his fault. Strictly speaking, it wasn't Jim's fault but he'd been there in the Transporter Room, he'd seen what the kid had been through.

After Nero had been defeated and the Enterprise was limping back to Earth, McCoy managed to persuade Chekov to come to his counselling sessions but only under the guise that they were mandatory for the whole crew. 

The poor kid had sat there with a fake smile plastered on his face and said, in a voice too high "I'm fine, doctair, zhere eez no problem,"

The next session was slightly more productive - McCoy was starting to wear the kid down. Chekov had a slight scowl on his face, but his eyes were too wide, scared.

"I can assure you, doctair, I am fine," he ground out.

It was after a few sessions that McCoy got him to open up completely. 

"I couldn't save her, doctair, it vas all my fault!" Chekov sat slumped in the chair, his head in his hands. Loud, racking sobs shook his fragile looking body as weeks of suppressed and pent up emotions came bursting out. 

Over the next few weeks McCoy helped Chekov through his trauma, and while he'd never fully see himself as blameless he could successfully shift some of the blame to Nero, and to the Enterprise herself for not being advanced enough to deal with the sudden shift in gravity.

"Zhank you, doctair, you haff helped me a great deal," he was wearing a genuine smile. It was small, barely there, but it warmed McCoy's heart just the same.

 


End file.
